You Woke Up Overweight Today
You woke up overweight today just like the past many days. Today though was different. You looked in the mirror and decided to do something about being overweight. But what should you actually do? Go on some weird weight loss crash diet? Start running? Join a gym? Maybe feel overwhelmed and go back to bed? If you are overweight, obese, over fat, or just want to look and feel a little better take a look at these recommendations to get you started losing weight.
What Can You Do? Start Here With These Recommendations
Accept Responsibility, Being Overweight Is Not A Curse
You aren’t overweight because of some genetic defect, or because of society. If you have a surplus of body fat it’s because you’ve been overeating. If you want to reverse the situation, you’ll need to be ready to make changes.
Measure Your Food
I know it’s annoying, but there’s not a big visual difference between 900 and 500 calories. You could easily be eating 800 (or more) calories per day simply because of oversized portions. Think about it, 4 meals a day of an extra 200 calories is an extra 800 calories per day. It sounds like a lot because it is a lot, however the sneaky 200 extra calories per meal wont look like a lot.
Go Easy On The Sauces & Dressings
At fast food restaurants, the salads provides more calories than the burgers depending on the salad ordered and the dressing used. You could easily add 400 calories to a meal only from oils or sauces alone. Be aware of this and look for lighter alternatives.
Don’t Drink Your Calories
Juices and soft drinks are one of the main causes of over-ingesting calories, and they won’t make you feel full. They have little do no nutrients in them. Frankly, if you are overweight and trying to lose weight drinking juices or regular sodas you are not trying to lose weight at all.
Track Your Calories & Adjust Accordingly Every 2 Weeks
If you are losing weight then you’ve got no worries. However at some point you wont lose weight for 2 main reasons. Reason 1 is your calorie tracking is not accurate. Reason 2 is you need to reduce your calories each day. To do this lower your caloric intake by a factor of one x body weight (in pounds) per day. For example, if you’re 250 pounds, you’d decrease calories by 250 if you’re not losing weight. This is also why it’s important to record food intake. How can you lower your caloric intake by 250 if you have no idea how many calories you’re eating? Don’t guess – your guessing is what got you overweight in the first place. Do you have an app or way of tracking your food intake?
Lighten Up On The Calorie Dense Foods
These are foods that provide a lot of calories for a small volume of food. Because of leptin issues, you’ll have a bigger appetite and will require more food volume. If you go with foods that are really dense in calories, this can lead to overconsumption of energy. Nuts for example can be part of a healthy diet, but they provide a very large amount of calories for a small portion. Avocados are similar.
Measure & Record Your “Splurges” Too
Get mentally prepared to hate this one. The last thing anyone trying to lose weight wants to do after splurging is recall what and how much they ate, and then look up the calories. But it’ll make you conscious about the caloric impact of pigging out or having a “cheat meal” or “cheat weekend”. Also, knowing you’re going to have to record your intake will help you make better choices. You’ll think twice about what and how much you choose to eat.
Don’t Offset 6 Days Of Healthy Eating With A Terrible Day 7
One binge can destroy your efforts for the week. If you consumed a 500-calorie deficit per day for six days, but ate a 4,000-calorie surplus on Sunday, you might actually gain weight over the week.
Overweight? Move More, Its That Simple
Overweight individuals tend to overestimate how much they move. Always be more active than you think you need to be. You can actually buy a pedometer (or use an app on your phone) and shoot for a total of 9,000-10,000 steps per day. While these devices are not 100 percent accurate, they’ll help you estimate daily physical activity and will help you know if you’re moving enough or not.
Eat More Protein
If you want to lose fat, drink a protein shake 10 minutes before your main meals (I know this is drinking your calories but protein shakes are ok). It’s very difficult to get fat from protein. More importantly, it’ll go a long way to decrease hunger and will help you consume less food at your meals.
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Don’t Multi-Task
Don’t eat while doing other things. Extra distractions can cause you to ignore fullness signals and overeat. More interestingly, by having two sources of stimulation, you’ll get a greater pleasure response (dopamine release) in the brain, which won’t just make you want to eat more in that moment, it’ll make you want to continue the habit of eating while watching…or scrolling on your tablet or phone.
Being Overweight Is Self-Imposed, & Will Be Self-Corrected
Much like cigarette addiction, obesity and being overweight is a self-imposed condition. But because it affects physical appearance, it’s perceived as hateful or discriminatory to say being overweight is preventable and reversible.
Being overweight doesn’t make any person worse than a leaner individual. Just like smoking doesn’t make you an inferior human being. However, being overweight does increase the risk of serious health issues. The solution to the problem is simple and entirely dependent on your actions.
You don’t need to fit into the glorified and unattainable models of beauty we see in the media, but even moderate fat loss is associated with a significant reduction in health risks.
When it comes to weight management, as well as most important issues in our lives, taking personal responsibility is the key to empowerment and improvement.
Wrapping It All Up
Ultimately, you’ve got this. If you want to lose weight you can do it. Take it 1 step / meal / event / day at a time. Becoming a better version of yourself is worth it. Invest in yourself, you’ll never regret it. If you have questions or are looking for help – you’ve come to the right place. Check out my Get Started Page. Fill out the information and I will reach out to you ASAP and we will get started. Thanks for reading!
